Today I'm joining the Big Time Blogging Challenge to share some of my classroom management strategies.
In my classroom, I use a clip chart. You are probably very familiar with this concept, but, in case you are not, students start on green. They can "clip up" or "clip down" based on behavior. When students move to yellow, they take a time out. If they move to orange, they move to a "safe seat" away from the other students to help them make better decisions until they are ready to come back and follow directions. If students move to red, they take a time out in a "buddy room." That second grade teacher has a seat and a timer where the students come in, sit, and fill out a behavior form until the timer goes off. I make a copy of that form for parents. After each clip move down, I have a conversation with the student about what went wrong and how the situation can improve. If students "clip up" to blue, they get a positive note home about how they got there and get to choose a dum-dum from the topiary monster.
I also do team points. Teams can earn points for anything: chairs pushed in, cleanest table, lining up quietly, being on task, etc. The team with the most points at the end of the day gets to have this trophy I made on their table the next day. I think this year I want to add another incentive to having the most points, because the trophy enthusiasm didn't last long enough. Maybe first to line up for lunch or first out to recess?
In December, Pep the elf comes to visit to help keep our behavior on track with little treats and rewards for good days. In May, we have building-wide punch cards to go on the incentive field trip.
Another building-wide incentive is Cool Cash. Students can earn the cash from any teacher, any staff member. About once a month, there is a cart in each hallway that kids can purchase things from, like water bottles, pencils, small toys, or small stuffed animals that were donated.
I haven't taken the time to completely think through what I will do this year, whether I'll keep everything the same or change things up a little, so I'm interested to see what other bloggers share from their classrooms.
Thanks for reading!
